Patti Smith | The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/profile/pattismith
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Just Kids by Patti Smithhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jan/31/just-kids-patti-smith-extract
In this extract from Patti Smith's new memoir, she recalls her arrival in New York in the late 60s, life with Robert Mapplethorpe, and hooking up with the Warhol entourage in bohemian Manhattan<p>This article has been removed as our copyright has expired.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jan/31/just-kids-patti-smith-extract">Continue reading...</a>BooksPop and rockPatti SmithSun, 31 Jan 2010 00:05:02 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jan/31/just-kids-patti-smith-extractPatti Smith2010-01-31T00:05:02ZRick Moody on the lyrics of Patti Smithhttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/jun/26/popandrock.culture1
<p>You can't write about the lyrics of Patti Smith in ordinary language. To do so is to apply the wrong tool. To do so is to fail to understand her revolution. To quote from a few well-known songs - &quot;Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine&quot; or &quot;Outside of society they're waitin' for me&quot; - and to evaluate these lines by comparing them with some well-known word guy, a Leonard Cohen or a Bob Dylan: that just wouldn't do! Smith comes out of an adjacent tradition, and &quot;Jesus died for somebody's sins&quot; suggests the parameters of that tradition - dread, religious ritual, intoxication - which follows in the numinous footsteps of the Romantics. If Dylan comes out of Woody Guthrie, via Kerouac, Ferlinghetti and Ginsberg, then Patti Smith's lyrics, especially on her first three albums, emerge from Verlaine, Rimbaud, Blake and Shelley, via Burroughs. (And don't overlook Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath.)</p><p>But, still, that's to leave out the issue of performance. As the tale goes, Patti Smith, youthful poet and dreaming citizen of lower Manhattan, had her epiphanic moment when she took along an electric guitarist for support at one of her poetry readings. If that is different from the bongo or saxophone accompaniment that had long been a part of the Beat scene, it's mainly different in terms of decibels. These were chords that were borrowed from Van Morrison. Or from the garage rock of the 60s. She was using the vocabulary of rock'n'roll as it already was.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/jun/26/popandrock.culture1">Continue reading...</a>Pop and rockMusicCulturePatti SmithThu, 26 Jun 2008 11:09:50 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/jun/26/popandrock.culture1Rick Moody2008-06-26T11:09:50ZPatti Smith: Love and an electric guitarhttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/mar/13/comment.usa
Should artists in rock take laurels from institutions? I did it for my late husband and other maverick souls <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/mar/13/comment.usa">Continue reading...</a>US newsMusicWorld newsCulturePatti SmithTue, 13 Mar 2007 00:12:11 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/mar/13/comment.usaPatti Smith2007-03-13T00:12:11Z